Thursday, January 31, 2013

Because this seems consistent with their sense of humor, like the liberal hunting license and some of their jokes about Obama eating watermelon or with a bone in his nose... So, would they be amused y this?

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The urban dictionary refers to gun porn as the fetish images of guns lit like porn models (no gender or orientation specified), or as exaggerated gore and violence in the portrayal of guns. The way I'm using the term here it is the connection between guns and the sexuality of guys who aren't getting any - or not what they want, and their desire for firearms to make them feel manly and powerful, and therefore appealing to women who want them with guns but not without them.

Statistics show that fewer people are owning guns, with more of those few owning more guns than previously. Similarly statistics show that more conservatives/ Republicans and Tea Partiers own guns, while there has been a marked decline in gun ownership among liberals / Democrats from earlier years.

I would point out that these images demonstrate a sexual objectivizing of women, and note that it has been the right that has been the most pro-rape, anti-women in their various culture war legislation AGAINST women. There appears to be a clear pattern of attempting to dominate and subordinate women from the right under the guise of traditional values, reducing variously the legal support for women to be paid equally, and attempting to take away women's rights to control their reproductive health decisions.

Please note while there is no copyright indication, attribution is included in the photos or below. Here is an example of what is wrong with the gun nuts, including apparent sexual gratification from guns and a relationship to them that strongly implies they are classic fetish objects.

Wikipedia defines sexual fetish as:

Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object/situation is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regarded as an enhancing element to a romantic/sexual relationship "achieved in ordinary ways (e.g. having the partner wear a particular garment)" or as a mental disorder/disorder of sexual preference if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life.

This suggests a more accurate explanation of the gun nut hysteria at having their sex toys regulated or restricted, and certainly justifies the skepticism that the desire for guns is oh-so heroic a duty to defend their helpless loved one. Yeah, right. The prevalence of gun porn (do a google search, but I'd advise not from a work computer) and you will see what I mean. These are not rational people, they are emotional crazy people with questionable emotional adjustment. They also clearly have sexual issues with women. If there was ever proof required that guns are a fantasy object, this proves it.

squirrelfordinner.com

pensacolafishingforum.com

antzinpantz.com
only women aren't the ones with
the penis envy problem

Too often the reality is this, not some Rambo-like wannabe. Guns won't make him appealing or desirable to anybody, nor will they make him intimidating or impressive, except in his own mind :

Addicting info is a fascinating web site. I like their careful fact checking, unlike so many right wing sources, that operate in a silly little bubble where there is little if any credibility checking or challenge.

The right wing ideology is one of people who see themselves as perpetual victims, living in fear of....mostly made up shit. The things they see as hurting them don't usually do anything of the kind, or act in the way they believe. They totally miss the things FROM the right which harm their interests.

They are a political spectrum of the ignorant, fact-challenged, and paranoid, which becomes more severe the further to the right they go. I found the enemies list article posted below of particular interest since the far right wing nut ScaifeNet lists this blog as one of their most dire foes, and republishes everything we write without our consent. That way they can post comments without fear of being held accountable for any form of fact checking, errors, or misrepresentations, etc. - you know, like the right wing does. Alas, we do not appear to have made the NRA enemies list, at least not yet.

I am encouraged to try harder, in hopes of being a later addition. Unlike the righties, I'm not fearful, or paranoid, nor do I live in one of their silly bubbles where the courage, sanity, oxygen and facts are equally thin.

Addicting Info has an excellent article -link HERE - about the NRA's paranoia and deception, regarding their enemies list. The NRA has for a long time appeared to inflate their numbers, including specifically counting in their life-time members who are are in fact dead. Presumably being a member for life means that it is no longer appropriate to be counted in that membership once you to go on to your eternal rest, but perhaps they have some small print caveat that allows them to count backward to reach any random number they care to claim, alive or dead. Sort of like the Mormons being able to convert people against their will after they die, through retroactive baptism. What they do with your name after you've croaked your last has no relationship to what you believed, supported or endorsed when you were alive. Lifetime membership in the NRA is in any case a category based not on duration of membership, participation or support, but on the expenditure for membership, and someone can add you to the ranks of the NRA without your knowledge or consent - kind of like the Mormon baptism - through a gift made in your name.

Please keep these little vagaries of NRA so-called 'membership' in mind while reading the following from Addicting Info:

Paranoid NRA Releases Enemy List – Are YOU On It?

Enemy lists…They go back as far as politics have been a part of our
culture. Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, Pol Pot, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Saddam
Hussein, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who is, we believe, still
dead. In the 1970s the most famous, though not largest list to date
became public, was Nixon’s Enemies List. It had 207 names. This month the National Rifle Association released its own enemies list. It has 525 names, associations, sports teams, and corporations.
A couple of things become apparent while reviewing the NRA list.
First, they have no concept of data record formatting. Second, at least
some of the folks on the NRA list are dead – which rings familiar to the
persistent rumors that many of the NRA “Life” Members are dead as
well. Third, unlike Nixon, the NRA didn’t list the politicians who
support gun regulations, nor are any of the new media sites – like we
here at Addicting Info or Occupy the NRA on the list.
Back to the list. 24 major medical associations, from the AMA to the
American Association of Neurological Surgeons populate the list of NRA
enemies. And so are the American Bar Association, National Education
Association, the Catholic Conference, United Church of Christ, United
Methodist Church and the American Jewish Conference. From the world of
sports are the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis
Rams.
Hollywood is represented by a wide variety of actors…from TV’s Barney
Miller – Hal Linden to Rambo – Sylvester Stallone to NCIS’ Mark Harmon
to George Clooney, Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon, MacGyver’s Richard Dean
Anderson. Also on the list, Sigourney Weaver, Oprah Winfrey, Shania
Twain, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand – the only person to be on both
Nixon and the NRA’s lists.
Former politicians Jimmy Carter, Ed Koch and C. Everett Coop are also
listed along with political powerhouse, the AARP, 32Million strong.
It might be easier to write who is NOT on the list.
And that brings up the philosophy of having an enemies list. If a
person or group is confident in their position, confident in the support
that they have, they would have a supporter’s list rather than enemies
list. Showcase the hundreds of public figures, industry leaders and
organizations that support your cause, your philosophy. You know, like Ted Nugent and Alex Jones.
But that doesn’t happen…ever. And it is because an enemies list is a weak defense of an untenable position.
Read the very scary LIST here. Pray you’re not on it…Booga Booga!

It us going to take the right wing a LONG long time to undo this perception of them by the rest of us, for the simple reason that it is true. Their hatred of immigrants and their contempt for minorities has been palpable. The explicit denigration of Hispanics and Latinos has been to vehemently expressed from the grass roots to the leadership to the party platforms to be undone.

These people are not stupid as the political right has assumed; rather they are smarter than many on the right who too easily believe bullshit, lies and conspiracy theories, and who are too easily lead into voting against their own self-interest and the national best interest.

One of the hallmarks of the gun nutz is their fetish relationship to their firearms, attributing to it unrealistic powers to make them more capable and powerful people than they really are or are ever likely to be due to their own flaws, failings, and idiot-syncracies (to borrow an Archie Bunkerism).
The picture below displays how a firearms, particularly one like this, affects their subjective image of themselves.There are, sadly, too many people like the fool below on the internet, usually with not just large firearms but whole arsenals of them. But this does clearly illustrate the problem with the aspect of the gun culture towards firearms not as utilitarian objects but as a means to being taken seriously, to command respect or attention, to empower to coerce or intimidate. When a firearm fails to make them smarter, stronger, faster, more sophisticated or more attractive, there is an inherent frustration.

NO. No one is impressed, not with any of your boy toys; so put them away - ALL of them, PLEASE!

When Bob Costas in his Jon Stewart interview on the Daily Show on 1/28/'13 talks about the gun culture, about someone at 2 minutes into the interview who is texting about their girlfriend cheating on them, and having not just one gun, but eight guns ready, it gives insight into the problem attitudes in our gun culture, in a way that is not as funny as the silly oaf in the picture above. Watch the whole interview, please, but pay attention especially to the segment about 2 minutes into the interview, because I would argue THAT attitude described by Costas is common EQUALLY to many urban and rural gun owners. Because not only the use and abuse of firearms is a problem, but more deeply the underlying attitude towards what they are and what they are not is badly flawed, and at the core of the problem. It is why preventing crazy people, minors, felons, drug users, domestic abusers and other prohibited people from having firearms is not enough, it is why toning down the violence in movies and music lyrics and video games is not enough. We have to look at changing the fundamental attitudes towards guns, towards violence, and towards a vigilantism conviction that each person with a gun also has the right to act with a gun to defend not only their physical bodies, or those of their family members, but also their sense of self, their pride, their feelings when they are offended, their 'face' or self-image against disrespect.

When guns are tied to that sense of identity, there is an inherent problem, an act of violence waiting to happen when a threshold of frustration or disappointment or anger is crossed.

This would seem to be the only explanation, death panels for profit, that explains their operations, and their having not only refused unfairly to provide insurance coverage to ordinary people for some pretty ordinary things like pregnancy and /or acne under the guise of 'pre-existing' conditions, it amounts in too many cases to taking people's money and then denying coverage.

Obamacare takes away the power of insurance companies to sacrifice human lives for profit margins. While there are some very good aspects to the insurance industry, there have been many things wrong with how it has operated in the U.S. that are improved on through the Affordable Health Care Act.

I continue to be shocked at the number of right wing extremists we have in the state of Minnesota, distinctly exceeding in number those in neighboring states.
Out of 12 identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 11 are varying degrees of extreme right, with only 1 .........I'm not sure where it belongs.

When you believe whatever someone tells you, then you don't care about facts. Truth is not variable. Facts are the same for everyone. This is why Fox lies so often - their audiences are gullible right wing fools; they have no professional commitment to facts or professional standards or ethics.

We have enough nut jobs on the right trying to plan for the dissolution of the United States, like the lunatic who wanted to buy an aircraft carrier for the state of Wyoming, 'just in case'. Add to that the tea party secessionists, and the rest of the crazies, like the militia movements, and the wacko sheriff's who want to pick and choose what laws they will enforce. They endanger us all, they are the lunatic fringe trying to take over the country with a bad understanding of science and history and economics, and usually a totally fucked notion of religion.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

I haven't had a chance yet to check out the authenticity that this person wrote this open letter; however there is a real person in St. Paul, with this name, whoappears to head a teacher's organization with this name. I hope to confirm this week that this is the person who wrote this, given the instances where people's names and organizations appear in heavily forwarded emails or goes viral on facebook. I think this is an excellent letter, and it appears here based on the initial appearance that this is legitimate. More will be posted as it becomes available.

Last week, as reported in the STrib, a father pulled an AK-47 on his daughter for getting 2 B's instead of 2 A's on her report card; he was found to have a collection of assault rifles. He also threatened hi wife with his newest assault rifle over the incident. It is not a stretch to imagine a parent, or even a distraught student, doing the same thing with a gun, over an unsatisfactory grade. It has happened in the past, in Montana, where there was a school shooting over bad grades.

By way of Facebook:

From a teacher in St. Paul, NE.

You want to arm me? Good. Then arm me with a school psychologist at my
school who has time to do more than test and sit in meetings about
testing.

Arm me with enough counselors so we can build skills
to prevent violence, have meaningful discussions with students about
their future and not merely frantically adjust student schedules like a
Jenga game.

Arm me with social workers who can thoughtfully attend to a student's and her family's needs so I. Can. Teach.

Arm me with enough school nurses so that they are accessible to every
child and can work as a team with me rather than operate their offices
as de facto urgent care centers.

Arm me with more days on the calendar for teaching and learning and fewer days for standardized testing.

Arm me with class sizes that allow my colleagues and I to know both our students and their families well.

Arm my colleagues and I with the time it takes to improve together and
the time it takes to give great feedback to students about their work
and progress.

Until you arm me to the hilt with what it will
take to meet the needs of an increasingly vulnerable student population,
I respectfully request you keep your opinions on schools and our safety
to yourself NRA. Knock it off.

-Mary Cathryn Ricker, President of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

This was shared on my wall today. I thought I would share it with you and I hope you share it with others.

Because the right are hateful cowards who manipulate with emotional thinking rather than critical thinking, and who are made up of people who believe things that are factually wrong and objectively surreal, and who promote propaganda and self-pity instead of solving problems and moving forward fairly and equitably.

We have many times more children dead and injured from firearms in this country than all the comparable developed countries combined - many times that combined total of other nations. If we need to reduce the numbers and kinds of guns to keep us all safe, including children, then we need to take those steps, and the 2nd Amendment permits doing so. What Heston is advocating is a version of gun ownership that results in Americans killing Americans and themselves.
Enough.
Not as a whole, not in part; the Constitution is not a suicide pact.
This is pure propaganda, a message that is entirely driven by emotion and exaggeration while ignoring fact and objective reality. The intent is to involve the targeted person in emotional thinking, not critical thinking. Bad Heston, bad NRA, bad failed gun culture.

Turning up the heat on right wing lies

Opinions

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

― Isaac Asimov, "A Cult of Ignorance," Newsweek (Jan. 1980)

We stand with PP

past wisdom

"I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."Billy Graham - Parade (1 February 1981)

An astute observation from Bertrand Russell

"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."

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